Konnichiwa, kazoku!!!
I am glad you had a great week! It sounds like things are crazy with all the concerts, football games, and so on, but it sounds like you are all having a great time :) thanks for keeping me updated with all the happenings of Arizona!
Yes, things are going well here in Miyazaki. I feel like there is never enough time to do all the things we want to do as missionaries, but hey, I guess that is a great problem to have! To start, I will answer a few of your questions
Takoyaki party
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Haha, no, takoyaki is not a mixture of Mexican/Japanese food. The Japanese word for octopus is tako. Takoyaki is like dough that you put a piece of octupus in, and cabbage, and other meat, and cheese, and all kinds of random things are inserted into the dough as it is cooking in this round griddle thing. Wow, that is a terrible description. I will definitely describe it better for ya in a year and a half (mostly because you know how much I like to use hand motions when I talk. It would definitely be helpful in this situation). Anywho, it is always a great time, lots of fun when we are able to have a takoyaki party! And no, T-san did not bring his friends to the takoyaki party, but they are hopefully coming to our huge YSA sports event today. We reserved some courts in a gym across town and we are doing a big volleyball competition with the single adults in the ward and their friends. I am excited!
Football. Sigh. Enjoy it for me, please. Sometimes when I remember that I am missing two football seasons, it makes me a tiny skoshi bit of trunky. Then I remember how I am in Japan and I remember that I would rather be here than watching football, so everything is fine!
Japanese - it is coming. In fact, I spoke in church yesterday, and it wasn`t even half bad! I know there are just about a bajillion ways in which I can still work harder and improve so much more, but things are a lot happier these days on the language side of the missionary scale. The happy news is that I basically discovered a couple of weeks ago that I knew more Japanese than I thought I did - so therefore, once I gained some confidence and opened my mouth a little more, things started happening. It is still scary - but things really are improving. My exciting news is that I can hokoku (report) completely in Japanese to our Nihongin district leader, and be understood! That is always a plus. Anyway - things are getting better. But I can improve SO MUCH more. I will just continue tryin my hardest every day, and remembering what this work is all about!
This past week, it has been raining a ton every morning, then sunshiney in the afternoon. Pretty convenient for our missionary schedule - because we study while its raining, then have beautiful weather when we are tracting and going to appointments. AND we get the bonus of smelling the beautiful after-the-rain smell. It is awesome. Also, BBQs in Japan are basically the greatest things ever. The meat is so good, and the there is this meat sauce that is delectable. Sorry I always talk so much about food. No judging, please. You would talk about it too if you could taste the goodness of the things I have had in the last few months. And on that note I have more good news - I have become a less picky eater. And please tell dallin that yes, I eat plenty of things with tentacles that are chewy. It just makes it more of an adventure, that is all. :D
Jaaa, so this week we had a BBQ at a less active member`s house and it was great! Another fun thing that happened this week was that the sister training leaders came for junkai (exchanges) with us this week. Junkai week is always so fun - they are awesome. This transfer there was a different STL from last time, so it was great to get to know her a bit. I was on splits with Kobayashi shimai, and we had a blast. The exciting part was that we spoke mostly in Japanese. Things are looking up.
Okay, sorry about all the random stories. But now on to the real stuff. N-chan still does not have her parents` permission, but on a different note she got engaged to a member last week. We are way happy for them, and he has a really good relationship with her parents so we should hopefully be meeting them and/or receiving permission this week. We are hoping things will work out! If it is what the Lord wants to happen, of course. :)
More good news and bad news. The good news is, since being in Japan I have learned a lot more about the Buddhist culture than I knew before! Huzzah for learning new things, right? Fact about that - after someone passes away, there is a 49 day period in which there are tons of preparations for certain rituals and such, and the funeral rites usually last about a year. So basically there are a lot of people that we will start teaching or try to talk to but if they are in the middle of one of these rites, they won`t be able to meet with us anymore. It is a little frustrating, but we are learning a lot from these situations that we encounter!
Anyway, that just about wraps up my week. Thanks for all of your love and support, and remember how blessed we are to have this wonderful gospel!
あいしています！！！
-Flake Shimai
フレ－ク 姉妹
PS - We are having a Halloween party next month, and they would love some ideas!! Can you please send me the recipe for pie crust and homemade rootbeer?
Also we are going to have a Mexican food party with one of our investigators. If you haven`t sent that package yet with the taco seasoning yet, could you send that today or tomorrow? And maybe some easy mexican food recipes by next week. Thank you sooooo much - I love you all!!
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